28-10-2012, 09:42 AM
Hi,
Thanks Gary; I fully agree with you regarding keeping warm and the high cost of heating. Every year when our short spell of warm weather arrives I always have a list of jobs that need doing on the outside of the bungalow or in the gardens; it never falls in that by the time I've gone through this list the cold bad weather returns meaning jobs I would like to do rather than have to do sees me in the frozen garage.
This year though I've been fighting back; my workshop is coming along nicely; it now boasts much better lighting and with a nice big central heating radiator it warms up quickly. Compressed air is laid on via a new SIP compressor affording nail gun facility. Music is supplied through a new Sony mini Hi-Fi playing up to 200 of my favourite sixties songs on one disc. I'm slowly arranging all my hand and power tools and have bought a monster router at 2,100W which I'm keen to play with because over the last 30 years I've never liked routers and could never settle with one rather like you with lathes; recently I've made friends with my small B&D 1,100W router and find it very useful. My lathes have been in the garage where three still remain but I've just installed a rather nice Union Jubilee woodturning lathe in the workshop and am currently upgrading it to suit me; hopefully this lathe will get plenty of use just for fun as I will be able to work on it in comfort; dust extraction needs sorting for the workshop but I might end up buying one of the powered helmets; I looked at air scrubbers for ceiling mounting but was scared off by stories of filters causing legionnaires disease. I'm fully retired but always seem to be working flat out just to keep up.
I'm pleased you are finding the drilling jig useful Gary; I copied the hole pattern from a Philco Peoples set back panel and this hole pattern appears to be used on a number of other sets. Making the drilling jig out of steel was the easy part for me; the hard part was to get the hole pattern correct; I had considered adding the pattern onto the forum for others to copy but my CAD skills leave a lot to be desired.
If you are not interested in lathe work Gary then I understand you not owning one but for anyone with a little interest in lathes once one is bought it opens up a whole new world of interest. Many people use a lathe as a sole hobby devoting a great deal of time to it. Those owning metal lathes tend to drift over to model engineering whilst those owning wood lathes produce all manner of items; many years ago I saw pictures of an Holtzapffel ornamental turning lathe which had been sold for a cool £500,000; you won't find one of these in my garage or workshop but I can dream.
My chum David (Yorkie) is heavily involved with his local woodturning group and David produces some wonderful items on his lathe in fact he has delighted Bron and me with gifts of some of them all made to perfection. I've been involved with lathe-work for the last 50 years and have never tired of lathes.
I can look forward to another winter working in the garage because although the workshop is now comfortable many of the projects I want to do involve jobs that can only be done in the garage; two Myford engineering lathes to fully restore and even the upgrade on the Jubilee involves metal fabrication in the garage.
The biggest problem I have in working in the garage is not so much one of comfort because once I get stuck in I can soon warm up with a bit of hack-sawing; the car is always garaged and this needs pulling out usually for it to receive a soaking; before putting the car away it needs drying off otherwise the damp attacks my cast iron machines. I dare not leave the car on the drive in our modern society where criminals are treated with a great deal more respect than victims. A while ago I had a short wooden ladder stolen from the top of our rear garden. About a month ago very near neighbours suffered a drugs bust at 2.30am ending up with police swarming the house for a full day; suspected cannabis; cocaine; mugging and aggravated burglary were some of the reasons for the raid in the local paper. We live in a top class area of Huddersfield and dare not leave a car in the drive or ladder in the garden.
Today is the first day after BST (British Summer Time). What a joke as I'm still waiting for summer to arrive.
Kind regards, Col.
Thanks Gary; I fully agree with you regarding keeping warm and the high cost of heating. Every year when our short spell of warm weather arrives I always have a list of jobs that need doing on the outside of the bungalow or in the gardens; it never falls in that by the time I've gone through this list the cold bad weather returns meaning jobs I would like to do rather than have to do sees me in the frozen garage.
This year though I've been fighting back; my workshop is coming along nicely; it now boasts much better lighting and with a nice big central heating radiator it warms up quickly. Compressed air is laid on via a new SIP compressor affording nail gun facility. Music is supplied through a new Sony mini Hi-Fi playing up to 200 of my favourite sixties songs on one disc. I'm slowly arranging all my hand and power tools and have bought a monster router at 2,100W which I'm keen to play with because over the last 30 years I've never liked routers and could never settle with one rather like you with lathes; recently I've made friends with my small B&D 1,100W router and find it very useful. My lathes have been in the garage where three still remain but I've just installed a rather nice Union Jubilee woodturning lathe in the workshop and am currently upgrading it to suit me; hopefully this lathe will get plenty of use just for fun as I will be able to work on it in comfort; dust extraction needs sorting for the workshop but I might end up buying one of the powered helmets; I looked at air scrubbers for ceiling mounting but was scared off by stories of filters causing legionnaires disease. I'm fully retired but always seem to be working flat out just to keep up.
I'm pleased you are finding the drilling jig useful Gary; I copied the hole pattern from a Philco Peoples set back panel and this hole pattern appears to be used on a number of other sets. Making the drilling jig out of steel was the easy part for me; the hard part was to get the hole pattern correct; I had considered adding the pattern onto the forum for others to copy but my CAD skills leave a lot to be desired.
If you are not interested in lathe work Gary then I understand you not owning one but for anyone with a little interest in lathes once one is bought it opens up a whole new world of interest. Many people use a lathe as a sole hobby devoting a great deal of time to it. Those owning metal lathes tend to drift over to model engineering whilst those owning wood lathes produce all manner of items; many years ago I saw pictures of an Holtzapffel ornamental turning lathe which had been sold for a cool £500,000; you won't find one of these in my garage or workshop but I can dream.
My chum David (Yorkie) is heavily involved with his local woodturning group and David produces some wonderful items on his lathe in fact he has delighted Bron and me with gifts of some of them all made to perfection. I've been involved with lathe-work for the last 50 years and have never tired of lathes.
I can look forward to another winter working in the garage because although the workshop is now comfortable many of the projects I want to do involve jobs that can only be done in the garage; two Myford engineering lathes to fully restore and even the upgrade on the Jubilee involves metal fabrication in the garage.
The biggest problem I have in working in the garage is not so much one of comfort because once I get stuck in I can soon warm up with a bit of hack-sawing; the car is always garaged and this needs pulling out usually for it to receive a soaking; before putting the car away it needs drying off otherwise the damp attacks my cast iron machines. I dare not leave the car on the drive in our modern society where criminals are treated with a great deal more respect than victims. A while ago I had a short wooden ladder stolen from the top of our rear garden. About a month ago very near neighbours suffered a drugs bust at 2.30am ending up with police swarming the house for a full day; suspected cannabis; cocaine; mugging and aggravated burglary were some of the reasons for the raid in the local paper. We live in a top class area of Huddersfield and dare not leave a car in the drive or ladder in the garden.
Today is the first day after BST (British Summer Time). What a joke as I'm still waiting for summer to arrive.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
